What began as a project to produce fabric designs more in line with her tastes has turned into a growing and profitable business for Diana Rammel and her attorney husband Justin. Ten years in, Utah-based Raspberry Creek Fabrics is producing about 40,000 yards of custom fabrics printed on demand, with an average order size of three to six yards.

Digital textile printing: from plain white fabric to finished customized apparel with minimal waste and a small environmental footprint.

“Eighty percent of our business is selling yardage to our retail customers,” Justin explained. “If you are a standard fabric store, you probably are ordering 5,000 yards of each fabric design you carry, and that’s a lot of inventory risk. With our model, customers can choose from any of our designs—or their own—and order exactly what they need with delivery in as little as three to five days. Not only does this eliminate inventory risk, it’s much more sustainable, since unused inventory must be discarded, adding to the landfill burden. Most retail lives by the rule of thirds—one-third of inventory is sold through retail, one-third goes to the discount table, and one-third goes to the trash. Our goal was to break that cycle.”